Feeling unmotivated is a part of the college experience

MIRANDA STAMBLER | THE SPECTRUM
Find your goals and break them down in a planner to stay motivated.

When transitioning to a new semester, it is hard to find the right stride to get a good grade in all of your classes. Life gets in the way and motivation is lost, especially when going from one semester to another in a matter of weeks.

Spring semester is nice because it has the motivational booster of spring break and Easter break, but it is difficult because the weather is gloomy and cold, which puts a damper on the unnecessary 8 a.m. class you have to wake up for and walk through a blizzard to get to.

Most students start off the semester with hope in their eyes that they will completely change and finally start using that planner or get all of their assignments done weeks before the due date. But more often than not, this motivation is lost after the first week of classes, and you are back to binging TV shows instead of working on the assignment that is due tomorrow.

There are many ways to fix your unmotivated mindset; you just have to know where to look. Rather than trying to think of ways to become motivated again, search among the posts of Pinterest, where others will tell you how they were able to stay motivated.

Find the ones that would work best for you and ignore the others, especially the cliché “you can do it” tips. Maybe this can be the semester where you change your mindset.

These are some tips that can help you find that motivation that you had last week:

Stay unmotivated

Either way, if you want to eventually graduate, you have to do that assignment. So, instead of constantly looking or waiting for motivation to strike you again at 2 a.m. where you think you’ll wake up the next day and be a completely different person, just do it now.

Stop watching that movie or television show and get the assignment over with. Most likely, if you get a good grade on it, you will become motivated by that. And if you get a bad grade on it, let that motivate you to improve your work.

Or just keep doing your work until that motivation comes back. It will at some point.

Create a time limit

If you cannot get motivated to study or do homework, creating a time limit keeps you in check and gives you something to move toward.

Look at your schedule; if there is a break in between classes, set that time as study time for a specific class and create a specific schedule that you cannot break. Even if it is only a 20-minute break, start to work and do not stop until you have to leave for your next class.

Otherwise, after the day is done, set specific times for specific classes and create a timer. No watching the clock; set the timer and put it aside and until it goes off, you can only work on what you set out to do.

You are not someone else

Looking at tips about how to stay motivated may inspire you to become a different person, but you know who you are and some things may not work for you. If you know you will give in and end up searching the internet for random videos rather than staying focused on studying, then schedule that time.

As long as you are honest with yourself on your tendencies you can fix it by creating time for that in your schedule.

You can still go out with friends on a Thursday night and get up for that 8 a.m. on Friday. All you have to do is create a guideline and stick to it. Make yourself go home before midnight, so you are able to wake up the next morning. This is where the timer comes in handy.

Also, when you know you won’t be available a certain night of the week for “me time,” then schedule that and make that the night you do not study or do homework.

Break down your goal

Most tips ask for you to think about your goal, but instead, take your goal and break it down. If your goal is to graduate with a certain GPA, break down what you have to do this semester to achieve that goal.

By breaking down your goal you are able to see all of the things you have to do rather than getting overwhelmed by your overall goal. Thinking about your overall goal is intimidating because you want it so bad, but it seems so hard to reach. By breaking down your goals, you are able to look at all of the little pieces that contribute to your end goal.

Stop comparing yourself to others

Everyone is guilty of looking at others. Whether they are friends or people on magazine covers, people compare their lives to others. By doing this, it makes you overwhelmed because you think about how you will never reach that point.

But those people you are comparing yourself to have goals themselves. They become unmotivated and need help too. Stop comparing what you have done to others and focus on how much you have achieved instead. Everyone has aspects they do not like about themselves, so think about what you want to change instead or why you are comparing yourself to that person.

Remember: you’re in college

College is a time where you change yourself a thousand times and you normally leave still not knowing exactly who you are, and that’s okay.

When you feel unmotivated, it’s normally because you are stressed about failure or feel like giving up on trying to get your GPA back up to where it was before that bad semester. But it’s okay. You are supposed to fail from time to time to. You just need to find where you want to be and what you are good at.

When you start to feel unmotivated, remember that you are in college for a reason and that most college students are going through the same problems as you. Keep in mind that everyone is struggling and feeling unmotivated comes with the territory.